The production, bagging and sale of ice is an extremely large enterprise throughout the world. At present, the vast majority of pre-bagged ice is produced in a factory, bagged, and shipped frozen to commercial or retail establishments. Whether the ice is produced off-site and shipped to a retail site or bagged on-site and stored in bagged form, the ice is frozen and it could be days or even weeks old before a customer purchases the bag of ice. This can lead to ice that is stale and which may be exposed to environmental elements that can impart an odor to the ice during transport or subsequent storage. Another problem with pre-bagged ice that is stored in a frozen state is that any melting of the ice along the way results in the ice refreezing into large chunks of ice that have to be reduced in size prior to use. Typically, ice that has refrozen into large chunks in the bag is dropped onto a floor or countertop to shatter the ice chunks or chopped up using an ice pick, hammer, and like tools.
On-site ice producing machines are in wide use in facilities such as hotels and food service establishments. Such devices are typically large, floor standing units that may be capable of producing hundreds of pounds of ice per day. Ice produced in this manner is either dispensed by using a scoop to retrieve the ice from a storage bin or dispensed into an ice bucket or chest via a chute operated with push buttons on the front of the machine. This system requires that a container be provided, whether it be an ice bucket, ice chest, or plastic bag. Systems such as these can lead to potential contamination of the ice and/or water as human contact with the ice is increased with additional handling. Furthermore, there exist ice forms, such as pelletized ice, that are difficult or even impossible for known ice producing and bagging machines to be able to handle, due to factors such as the size of the pellets and their relatively fragile nature.
It is known to provide free standing ice bagging machines such as that shown in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0216481 A1 to James et al. This application discloses an ice bagging apparatus for automatically and continuously producing, bagging, and storing bags of ice. The device includes an ice maker, a hopper for receiving ice from the ice maker, a slider box for receiving ice from the hopper and for channeling the ice into a bag, a bagging mechanism, a freezer for storing the bagged ice, and a control panel for managing and monitoring the system. As the ice is produced and bagged, it is transferred to a freezer in the bottom portion of the machine where it is stored until withdrawn for use or sale. A similar device is shown by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2007/0175235 A1 to Metzger, a co-inventor of the '481 application referenced above, the '235 application having many of the same features.
Other known devices include U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,300 to Wessa which discloses a machine that produces ice, bags the ice, and stores the ice in a freezer where it is stored prior to use and/or sale. Additional examples of stand alone ice makers are shown by U.S. Pat. No. 7,207,156 to Metzger; U.S. Pat. No. 7,624,773 to Maxwell; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,312 to Boulter.
Thus, while many solutions have been tried, there exists a need in the art for an ice production machine that is sanitary, energy efficient, and which solves some of the attendant problems found in prior art devices.